Inspection program for rental homes is approved in SLO

A split San Luis Obispo City Council voted 3-2 on Tuesday to pursue a rental housing inspection program after hours of public testimony, mostly against it.

Under the new program, which could take more than a year to implement, people who own rental homes in San Luis Obispo would be subjected to routine city inspections of their properties to make sure they are conforming to health and safety standards.

Councilman Dan Carpenter and Councilman Dan Rivoire voted against creating such a program.

More than 100 people packed the City Council chambers Tuesday to discuss the proposed program, with more than 40 people speaking on both sides of the issue.

Many rental-home owners, real estate agents and property managers advocated for a different approach, asking the city to implement a program that would educate renters on their rights as tenants.

Others expressed concerns that the city was overstepping its role and violating people’s right to privacy.

“I wasn’t too concerned about the program until I came upon the notion of interior inspections,” said Victor Montgomery, who owns property in San Luis Obispo. “That is just off the charts. I can’t picture a government agency going into my home and doing an interior inspection. … I have real fundamental issues about how this could be workable. … It seems to be very discriminatory against a certain class of people.”

Mayor Jan Marx said Wednesday that there are many cities in the state that have rental inspection programs.

“So I’m not worried about the theoretical unconstitutionality of it,” Marx said. “It will be good for the city if the rental homes are maintained. My main concern is the health, safety and welfare of the people that live in these places.”

Residents in support of the program spoke of deteriorating neighborhoods where landlords do little to upkeep their properties.

The program’s intent would be to curb blight and unsafe living conditions.

The number of rental homes in the city continues to outpace owner-occupied homes. In San Luis Obispo, 62 percent of available homes are rentals, according to the 2010 census, compared with a statewide average rental rate of 43 percent.

Genevieve Czech, who lives in a neighborhood near Cal Poly, said that when she moved to her home in 2000, there was one rental out of 31 homes in the area. Now, she said, more than half the homes are rentals.

“I’m not as concerned about aesthetics but of safety,” she said.

Longtime residents have complained that cars parked in front yards, couches on rooftops and more egregious offenses such as garages being converted into substandard rooms for rent cause blight and declines in property value.

“The people who spoke in favor of the program are people who live in neighborhoods where the percentage of rentals is much higher,” Marx said. “That testimony, in my mind, needs to be given more weight than some people that have an ideology that they want to express.”

Currently, the only inspections being done are of multifamily housing with three or more rental units within a single building. Those are done by the Fire Department and are focused solely on making sure the units meet state fire safety standards such as working fire alarms and sprinkler systems.

The new inspection program will fall under the jurisdiction of the city’s community development department. That department already handles code enforcement issues.

The proposed program will include both internal and external inspections of homes, likely once every three years.

Some rental units that will likely be excluded from the program are mobile homes, publicly owned or managed housing, homes governed by a homeowners association or rentals occupied by a family member.

The city is proposing that the cost of the program be covered by an annual fee assessed on rental units.

A program built on inspecting rental homes every three years would require a $98 annual fee per rental unit.

This story was originally published December 17, 2014 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Inspection program for rental homes is approved in SLO."